BERHAMPUR: Baidyanathpur police in Berhampur have arrested three persons on charges of cheating six banks by mortgaging imitation gold ornaments through an associate, causing a loss of around `24 lakh.
The accused are Biswajit Kar (42) of Ranipatna under Sahadebkhunta police limits in Balasore, Abhinav Srivastav (26) of Gauspur under Mohammadabad police station in Uttar Pradesh’s Ghazipur, and Sk Manjur Elahi (39) of Akatpur under Balasore Town police limits. While Biswajit and Abinav were arrested on Wednesday, Elahi was arrested on Thursday.
Police said, the trio used one P Purushottam (50) of Hinjilicut to execute their plan. Purushottam, who works in Andhra Pradesh’s Kakinada, came in contact with the accused about a year ago. In January, the three requested his help in obtaining gold loans, claiming they could not secure loans in their own names due to poor CIBIL scores. They promised him 10 per cent commission if he availed loans on their behalf.
Convinced, Purushottam opened bank accounts in his and his relatives’ names at different branches in Berhampur, Hinjilicut and Mandiapalli. Using the jewellery provided by the accused, he availed loans totalling `24 lakh, handed over the money to the trio, and kept his commission.
However, when Purushottam defaulted, the banks initiated recovery proceedings and warned of auctioning the pledged ornaments. When he sought repayment from the accused, they told him to allow the auction and assured him they had more jewellery for future loans.
The banks eventually auctioned the pledged ornaments last month, with one Kalidas Achary purchasing them. Later, Achary discovered the jewellery to be fake. The banks then informed Purushottam that the mortgaged ornaments were imitation and asked him to replace them, following which he approached the police on Tuesday.
Berhampur SP Saravana Vivek M said, Biswajit and Abhinab were lured to Berhampur under the pretext of mortgaging more ornaments. The two arrived in Berhampur on Wednesday and were arrested. About 75 grams of gold-coated ornaments were seized from them.